Wednesday, July 25, 2007

An interesting article from the June, 1966 issue of Ebony magazine looks behind the scenes on the set of the Batman TV show.

You can never tell where life will take you...

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(The text portion of the article continues below)

WATT BEGAN TRAINING AT 48

A $12,000 a year salary and supervision over scores of people did not come easily to Tennessee~born Reuben Watt. When he arrived in Los Angeles in 1939 -- after a bitter divorce in Chicago -- he lived with an uncle in the now-famous Watts community. During the early 1940's, he worked as a janitor at the Screen Actors Guild.

At an age (48) when most "janitors" are looking forward to retiring, Watt was in school, planning a career. In 1960 he graduated from the Univ. of Southern California School of Cinema where he majored in production supervision, hoping the added education would open doors that had always been closed. Watt was 52 before he "qualified" to take the Producers-Directors Guild examination for trainees in June 1964. Through efforts of Charles Boren, head of the producers assocation, he was sponsored by all the major studios. There were 640 other applicants. Because of his high score on the written test, Watt was picked to be one of the two men to start training immediately and later proved himself an apt student.

A relatively successful man at 54, the stocky assistant director is pleased to be a part of Batman and agrees with Producer Howie Horwitz' contention that Batman's only message "is wholesome entertainment." Both reject the theory that the show satirizes the American capitalist who is trying to save the world. "Batman," says Watt, "is just a super-intelligent human who believes in righteousness. Horwitz explains uncertainty over the outcome of the Vietnam war contributes to Batman's success. ''Pure escapist entertainment is more successful when there are outside pressures," he says. But Watt is not convinced Americans are escapists. "People are just tired of shootings and killings," he says.

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